Lord's Prayer

THE LORD’S PRAYER : M. M. NINAN
The Holy Trinity is indeed proclaimed because although the Father alone is mentioned, mystically and
anagogically the other two are implied in the words “name” and “kingdom”, “For the name of God the
Father exists in substantial form in the Only-begotten Son. Again, the Kingdom of God exists in
substantial form as the Holy Spirit.”
“Father” by Grace
...After the proclamation of the Holy Trinity, the prayer declares the grace of adoption in that we are
found worthy to call God “Father”. God is, according to nature, “Creator” however according to grace is
our Father. This understanding of paternity, in which it is said that God is properly called “Creator” on
account of His creating us but “Father” by Grace, is worthy of remark. We are all, then, children of God.
We have the grace of adoption and call him “Father”, not because He created us, but because he has
given us rebirth and regeneration by the saving work of His Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Through His labour we possess this adoption by grace. This spiritual adoption demands that we try to
preserve in our life the characteristics of our Divine birth by grace. In our action, and not only in our
words, we are to “hallow” His name, and thus be proven to be true children of God, glorifying Him,
“who is by nature Son of the Father”, in all that we think and do. The name of the Father is hallowed
when we mortify the material desires and are purified of the corrupting passions, as “sanctification is
the complete mortification and cessation of desire in the senses.” In this condition, manifestations
of anger because anger is, by nature, kindled by sinful desire. When we mortify these desires, then the
mania of anger ceases.
“Thy Kingdom come”
... “It is fitting that, anger and desire repudiated, we should next invoke the rule of the kingdom of God
the Father with the words “Thy Kingdom come”, that is “May the Holy Spirit come”; for having put away
these things, we are now made into a temple of God through the Holy Spirit by the teaching and
practice of gentleness.”
Imitation of the Angels.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
In this phrase Saint Maximos sees man becoming equal in honour to the angels, as asking for equality
with the rational beings. In the fulfilment of Godʼs will on earth as it occurs in heaven, man imitates the
angels. In the angels there exist no sinful desires, which paralyze the spiritual faculties with pleasure,
nor anger, which is fiercely directed against brothers. We find only the natural leading of rational
beings toward God and nothing else.
“Give us this day our daily bread”
Saint Maximos gives two meanings to the phrase “Give us this day our daily bread”; one anagogical,
the other literal.
In the anagogical interpretation, the spiritual interpretation, our daily bread is divine food. It is the food
of the bread of life and of consciousness which the first man forfeited as a consequence of sin. If man
had tasted this bread of divine consciousness, the death that comes through sin would not have
appealed to him.
Saint Maximos prefers this interpretation to the literal one because Christ Himself taught the disciples
that they ought not to be occupied with perishable bread, with concerns for what they will eat, what
they will drink and what they will wear rather they ought, above all else, seek the Kingdom of God.
Obviously, Christ would not teach his disciples to ask something in the prayer which he had
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